


Hounds

by Arlzureinne_Karale



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Fantasy, Gen, Red Riding Hood Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 18:38:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13370754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arlzureinne_Karale/pseuds/Arlzureinne_Karale
Summary: The king was dead, and the hunters set a search.





	Hounds

**Author's Note:**

> Ensemble Stars! belong to Happy Element. This oneshot is inspired by two certain gachas and bits of a certain fairy tale.

The king was dead, they said.

Half of the land was exploded in a chaotic buzz of rumors and gossips and occasional worries. The king was dead, they said. Murdered, kidnapped, departed, which was which, no one knows for sure. He just suddenly disappeared, and the castle was undergoing a lockdown.

There was a small possibility the knights was hiding their king after the tense situation with the emperor, but their king’s death was far more interesting than an overprotective group of young, talented knights desperately trying to protect their leader, wasn’t it? People liked to tell tales, after all; stories, fiction braided with fear.

Tittle-tattles sold more than certainty, lies always drifted faster than the veracity.

Yet, there were people who believed wholeheartedly about how the king was still alive, hiding somewhere until the world calmed down—until the emperor’s attention drifted to somewhere else, then emerged with triumph. He was loved, a beloved, it was a sin to not believe in him. He would come back, they said. Just you sit and wait until he stepped out from his safe haven.

With how much optimism the citizen held for the king, even the travelers who wandered into the threshold couldn’t help but believe, too. About how the king was hiding, not dying. About how he would probably declare a war to the emperor after the fall of the Court of Five Oddballs.

Or so they said.

Tittle-tattles were sold more than the truth, after all.

 

* * *

“Certainly it’s not the witches, nor the merfolks,” Izumi Sena said firmly after a long silence of staring at across the throne room. His wings ruffled in frustration, dull feathers splayed for all eyes to see; jaded after weeks of stress and uneasiness. There were eye-bags lining his eyes, topped with permanent creases on his forehead after hard nights of brainstorming.

It was obvious he was trying harder than his colleagues to locate the missing Tsukinaga Leo. Although all the knights currently sitting around the throne did look as if each of them was holding a piece of the sky over their own shoulders, weighted by the pressure to find their king.

Leo was a wayward king, indeed. It was almost normal to lose him for a day or two, but he never didn’t come back home after the mark of three days. Hunger and boredom always guided him back to his castle, to the warmth and the smiles he shared with his knights and his subjects.

“Now, now, of course, it’s not merfolks, they’re our alliance.” Narukami Arashi smiled, but the sparkles that gleamed in his eyes were dimmed, as if evening finally took hold of bits of sunshine trapped in the winged male’s eyes, as if shadow and darkness tried to claim him.

Like Izumi’s, his wings also lost the usual bright undertone. Normally, Narukami always took care of his wings like he was taking care of his own child—his own self, but it seemed he neglected even his feathers in favor to lead the castle and taking the reins to govern their territory.

Izumi frowned, his wings flapped in impatience.

“The vampires aren’t at fault either, we have one of the Sakuma siblings here, after all,” Tsukasa Suou voiced his opinion after watching his seniors’ restlessness. Unlike the other winged men, Tsukasa’s wings folded neatly on his back, far too tired to be splayed wide because he kept gliding on the sky to try to catch a glimpse of a tuft of bright orange hair underneath the spring’s exuberance.

The said Sakuma—holding the name of Sakuma Ritsu—shifted in his place leaned on the farthest corner of the throne room, away from the sunshine. One red eye peeked between strands of black hair as the vampire murmured, but still clear enough to resonate through the entire room:

“So it leaves us to werewolves.”

Slowly, four pairs of eyes shifted back to a pair of frames standing at attention some steps away from the closed doors. Strayed focus pulled back to the main goal in mind when Narukami, as the most persuasive between the knights, counted back a tale why they were gathered there.

“We don’t have a good relationship with them since they sided with the emperor; it almost makes sense if they kidnapped our king, perhaps to topple our power. That’s why we called you, because you’re an expert about werewolves, more than us who never saw a wolf, let alone fought one.”

The hooded pair of a young man and a young lady glanced at each other. Words exchanged between their gazes, between the light dancing in their irises, far too silent to be picked up even by the winged knights or the peculiar vampire sitting in the shadow.

Finally, the young man opened his mouth, red eyes turned back to the uniformed creatures with sword and worry drifted in their daydreams. Nito Nazuna cleared his throat, once. “Then our job is just to make sure the werewolves don’t have Leo- _chin_ , right?” His words were threaded very carefully and gently, as if he was talking to a wounded animal instead of sleepless chevaliers.

It was almost a wonder how the red-hooded blond was a hunter, a very capable one for that. With blood tainting his cape and a bold phrase of _slayer_ written on his soft, unblemished countenance. With sword strapped around his waist, and countless daggers hidden in the entirety of his clothes.

The curls formed in Izumi’s lips branched deeper, turned almost like a scowl. For his incapability or for the turn of fate, not even he knew it himself. “Yes, more or less. I trust your judgment if should they have our stupid king in their hands, Nazunyan.”

Nazuna grinned, his entire visage brightened. “We’re hunters, we hunt wolves for living,” the blond said, as he patted his partner on her arm—Anzu, her name was. His entire gesture resembling a proud big brother talking about his sister’s achievements. “You can rest assured.”

Izumi’s eyes shuffled from his friend, zeroed on the red-hooded girl gripping the strap of a bag slung over her shoulder. For a moment, curiosity settled between those shades of bluish irises, but he pressed it down for a more pressing matter; their king and his whereabouts.

Narukami’s wings flapped delightfully upon the confirmation, his smile reached his eyes when the blond stood to give his regards to the hunters. His voice was sincere, hopeful, conveying his friends’ wishes far too well, for he also wished for the same.

“Thank you, we’re counting on you.”

And with those words, the knights addressed a farewell for the hunters.

As the castle’s gate finally disappeared from a glance, Nazuna and Anzu didn’t waste their time to come back to the town, instead they made an immediate bee-line to the stray path hidden between bushes and trees, in the middle of deserted cobblestones path that leads to the hustles and bustles of the city, to the forest surrounding king Leo’s territory without a hint of reluctance.

The bushes rustled behind them, hiding their footsteps tracing the path made from wandering legs swallowed by curiosity. Nazuna’s hand came to rest on a pair of sword attached to the belts around his waist, glancing at Anzu to make sure she zipped open her bag and pulled out her rifle as well.

They were still on the edge of the forest, but only a fool would walk down these paths without weapons. Leo’s kingdom was still standing strong because the entire nature defended his territory with all of its loud growls and sharp teeth, winged knights and their alliance’s help.

“Do you think it’s really the wolves?” Finally, Nazuna broke the silence. His voice was soft and airy, picked by the wind and drifted around them. Red eyes moved from place to place as they ventured deeper into the forest, to the place where the sun started to shy away.

Anzu glanced to the side, watching as a squirrel scurried away from the sight. She focused her attention back to Nazuna, adjusting her hood that at a glance looked identical to her senior’s. “With the complicated situation, I can’t be so sure.” She paused, her words were lulled to the stillness, as though she was whispering secrets not meant for the universe. “But it is worth to take a peek.”

A small smile pressed on Nazuna’s mouth. The older male shook his head thereafter. “Ever since we brought down their alpha, I heard the wolves already have a new alpha, but they’re so quiet last winter, so I thought they already moved,” he hummed, tapping his pointer finger at the hilt of his curved sword, nails scraping at the rough handle. The leathery edge was cold under his fingertips, but Nazuna had never grasped something so reassuring.

The brunette, too, hummed. “There’s no place that has more forest than this kingdom.”

After all, Nazuna should know that more than anyone. He was already a hunter before Anzu could hold a dagger, living alone on the edge of the town even before Izumi received his accolade as Leo’s knight. Nazuna taught her how to live in the wild, in the street, in the border of a murderer and a human being; how to kill an animal so quick they barely felt the pain.

Nazuna welcomed Anzu in his house, where he was living with three children he adopted from the street—still so small and didn’t understand how the world worked around them—thus why now the two of them ended as partners, siblings, and hunters known as the Red Hoods.

They were, mayhap, just a little bit in the center of the forest when they stopped walking.

Around them, the forest was still, the wind had stopped singing, the time had stopped dancing; the calm when the storm was coming. The sky watched between the spaces they left behind, tucked safely between trees and bushes as the sun glimmered shyly with eager desire to watch, to question what would happen next now that the two young hunters finally realized something was wrong.

Nazuna unsheathed his curved blades, slowly stepping to the side. His back touched Anzu’s, whose rifle was cradled in her arm, finger rested on the trigger. Their eyes quickly scanned their respective side, drilling relentlessly into every nooks and cranny they could reach only with their eyes.

Anzu was the one who found it first.

A pair of amber eyes, peeking from the darkness some steps away from the path. Anzu nudged Nazuna’s shoulder with her elbow, and they quickly trade position so Nazuna could judge who watched them all along, or whether it was indeed a wolf or just a mere harmless animal.

Red eyes narrowed as the blond observed the eyes. He caught the owner’s form thereafter when the wind picked its consciousness and rustled the leaves around them; a big, tall man with eyes the shades of gold, and the rest was questionable. The form was just standing there as if waiting for them to leave, hidden between the shadow, standing behind a tree, and when Nazuna wondered what could be wrong, his eyes caught the sight of a pair of canine’s ears perked between the form’s hairs.

Nazuna could never wrong at identifying wolves.

The red-hooded young man strikes first. His heels didn’t reach the ground as he ran straight to the wolf form in a soundless, practiced steps. The same steps a predator possessed over the sight of a prey. Blades raised high in front of him; eyes gleamed with one intent to slay.

Upon his sudden depart, Anzu turned and readied her rifle, the loud click of a safeguard being released echoed down the forest, screeching to the older male that the brunette had his back.

Nazuna closed his distance, fast, soundless, breathless. He brought his blades down without wasting a breath, aiming for the neck and the chest, imagining himself leaving marks of lines down the skin as blood dripped all around the forest ground.

The wolf let out a noise akin to a grunt, immediately stepped back, and promptly lost his balance, falling to the ground on his back. The hunter backpedaled and stepped onto the side of a tree, making his step a stepping stone for an advantage, his curved sword raised high over his head now that his enemy had nowhere to run and nothing to fight.

Under the dark, Nazuna finally could see his prey; a young wolf, no older than him. With bright, red hair and furs the color of shadow around them. A snarl left the wolf’s lips, he jerked his head to the side while Nazuna’s blades stabbed to the ground just some inches away from his face.

The hooded male gasped when the wolf suddenly reached out and seized his neck, choking him with as much effort as the hunter gave to kill him. Long fingers grasped every side of the lean neck, squeezing Nazuna’s only means to breathe, prickling pain through his lungs.

There was a sound of someone branching the thickets, but it wasn’t from their right side. Nazuna’s blood ran cold when he realized it wasn’t his red-hooded partner, for he left Anzu in the path, now covered by leaves and branches, with only her faded existence proved by a bag laid ownerless.

“Wait—! Nazu!?”

The voice slashed around the tensed atmosphere built between the wolf and the hunter. Nazuna choked violently when the wolf released his neck, crumpling to the ground while his blades clanked loudly on the ground. Eyes the shades of his own hood turned to the new voice.

There, standing by the side was Leo, with leaves on his hair and a dried wound marring his cheek. His crown was nowhere to be seen, but his bows and quiver were still strapped safely to his back. Besides Leo, Anzu quickly ran to Nazuna, helping him to sit down. The king’s blinked so fast and so confusedly until Nazuna was worried his eyes would roll out or something.

Between his coughs, the blond managed to said, “Leo- _chin_ …?”

Leo stepped closer, crouching down in front of Nazuna. A grin graced his visage in a form of greeting for the old friend sitting in front of him. The king patted the hunter’s shoulder with delight frayed in his eyes, as though saying Leo was glad meeting the Red Hoods in this forest.

Nazuna only eyed him warily, his gaze quickly shifted to the wolf rising from his place and quietly shuffling behind Leo’s back. Eyes narrowed once more. “Leo- _chin_ , why are you with a wolf?”

Leo promptly turned his head to the wolf. Green eyes sparkled with recognition. Another smile pressed on his lips as he spoke, “Oh, you mean, Kuro?” The twilight-haired young man rose from his place, casually strolling to Kuro Kiryu’s side, carelessly patting the taller wolf on his arms with a gesture of a person approaching his new friend. “He saved me, wahahaha!”

Kuro shook his head, in a gesture as if he couldn’t help it.

Creases formed on Nazuna’s forehead upon the exclamation. When Leo’s attention shifted to Anzu in a disarray of pleasant conversations, the blond raised his eyebrows, attacking Kuro with a hoard of silent questions drifting to and from their locked stares.

The red-haired wolf sighed, heavy and tired. He sat cross-legged in front of Nazuna, glancing at Leo and Anzu chattering some steps away from the two of them. His voice was a murmur: “He was pursued by the emperor’s minions. I have to shake them off with detours.”

The young hunter grimaced, somehow skeptical. His reluctance dripped between his words, then leaked through his question. He, too, glanced at the king who currently pointed at Anzu’s rifle with sparkled wonders like that of a child’s. “You sure it’s the emperor’s?”

It was Kuro’s turn to raise his eyebrows, but not in a challenging way, more of an expression pure confusion. “Who else would go after Tsukinaga Leo?”

Nazuna frowned. Who else would go after Tsukinaga Leo, a young king with daydreams weaved around his fingers and nightmares ready at his disposal? Who else would go after Tsukinaga Leo, the only person with so many connections and alliances until there was a rumor he charmed the devil itself with his laugh and careless attitude?

Red eyes strayed to the said king, watching as Leo talked excitedly with Anzu. It didn’t escape Nazuna’s eyes how Leo’s quiver was void of any arrows; the king had obviously fought something somewhere, the hunter never saw Leo ever drew any arrows from his quiver, for his knights were more than capable to protect him.

Kuro took the silence to be a sign to continue, thus he picked up more words. “It’s really bad around the borders, it is just weeks before they completely surrounded us for all side.” Because as a wolf who lived in the forest, surely news traveled faster to his ears than to the town. He was fluent in the language of the sky and the song of the rain; certainly, there was no one understand this forest and all the scenes in it more than Kuro.

Nazuna was quiet for a moment. Worry crawled to his countenance, for the children waiting at home, for a red-hooded brunette who was teaching Leo how to use the rifle, for the king who was obviously dying, yet didn’t show it in front of his subjects.

“What do you propose?” the hunter spoke without turning, his voice tensed. He knows he shouldn’t ask something like this to a creature he tried to kill just a moment ago, but Kuro brought Leo home—or at least, wanted to. Izumi said the knights trusted Nazuna’s judgment, thereafter, Nazuna decided he would trust Kuro in this.

The wolf’s lips curled into a soft smile, grateful that the hunter trusted him.

“Let’s take our king back first.”

Because the battle wouldn’t start until all the chess pieces were laid on the board, and it was their job to guide the king back to the reality; helping him dancing across the world with a sword in hand and crown on his head, helping him wrestled the peace back from their enemies’ grasp.

**.**

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly have no reason about this, my brain just goes: hey, you know what's awesome? Anzu! And Nazu! As hunters! And my brain always gets what it wants unless I want to have a daydream breakdown in the middle of an exam or something.
> 
> Maybe you realized how rushed the plot and how many plotholes in this story, and again, I have no defense regarding that. I don't want this to turn into a multichapter since I have so many things on my plate, but one thing for sure, the ending is indeed supposed to be hanged like that.
> 
> And as always, I can't really stray so far from Leo and his Knights, please bear with another rounds of Knights while I am lurking in this fandom, coughs.
> 
> Big thanks to Freyyyy for proofreading it, I'm sorry to aggressively poking you with this story while you're busy.
> 
> Last, sorry for any grammar mistakes, thank you for reading~!


End file.
